


He Who Is Tired Of Mermaids

by Kiraly



Category: In Other Lands | The Turn of the Story - Sarah Rees Brennan
Genre: Fluff, Huddling For Warmth, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-24
Updated: 2019-08-24
Packaged: 2020-09-25 02:21:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20369047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiraly/pseuds/Kiraly
Summary: “He who is tired of mermaids is tired of life.”“He who is tired of mermaids,” Luke said, keeping a firm grip on Elliot’s arm, “Has been standing here all day watching you try to learn their writing system. You’resoaked,you’re going to get sick.”Or, totally self-indulgent fluff of the you're-soaked-let-me-warm-you-up variety.





	He Who Is Tired Of Mermaids

**Author's Note:**

> I've read this book at least five times. I've never really had an inclination to write for it...until a week or so ago when I got a craving to reread it, tried to stave it off by reading through most of the AO3 archive, and ended up rereading it again anyway. I finished rereading it last night and the craving still wasn't gone, so I guess I'm in self-indulgent fic hell now. 
> 
> (That said, I am short on actual ideas for fic, so it's very possible I'll just be here spitting out plotless fluff like this unless someone has a request).

“He who is tired of mermaids is tired of life.”

“He who is tired of mermaids,” Luke said, keeping a firm grip on Elliot’s arm, “Has been standing here all day watching you try to learn their writing system. You’re  _ soaked,  _ you’re going to get sick.” 

“I will not!” Elliot glared at him, radiating outrage. “Name one time that I have been sick.”

Luke sighed. “Last month? You stayed in bed for three days claiming you were going to die. Just because we don’t have deacon-chest-ants.” Whatever those were.

“Deacon—oh my god,  _ decongestants,  _ loser.” Elliot shook his head. “And I  _ was  _ dying. It’s a miracle I didn’t, since this place is utterly bereft of modern medicine. Considering how often people get stabbed around here, you’d think they’d—” He was warming to his subject, taking a deep breath to launch into a lecture. Then he paused, narrowed his eyes. “Are you trying to distract me?”

Oops. “No?”

Elliot looked at his feet, which were firmly on dry land and a considerable distance from the shore. The rocky cliff was still visible, the one covered in mermaid carvings which Elliot had been studying for the last three days. He kept having to go back to look at the lower sections after the tide receded. 

“You are! I’m being abducted for nefarious purposes.” Elliot waved his papers toward the cliff. “I still have some time before the next tide, I need to go back!” The carvings were possible to spot from the beach if you knew what to look for—and Elliot did, after one of his mermaid contacts had pointed them out. But a human couldn’t get close enough to copy them without going into the water. It had been an effective hiding place until now; most people wouldn’t bother, even if they knew the writing’s significance. Most people were not Elliot.

“I’m so close to a breakthrough—I think if I get it all written down, I can convince one of them to read it to me, and I can copy  _ that  _ down and study it. So I need to—”

“You need to get into dry clothes right now!” The wind was picking up. It didn’t bother Luke, but he knew Elliot felt the cold more than he did. And the sun was going down. “Or don’t, I don’t care. But get out of the wet ones.”

Elliot had gone still at Luke’s outburst, but the last line made him smirk. “Oh?” He leaned close, sliding his arm around Luke’s waist. “Are you planning to help?”

Even after a year of dating, he could still make Luke blush. “If it will get you to shut up and come to the house.”

“You know I never shut up.” Elliot allowed Luke to steer him away from the sea though, and kept an arm around him as they walked. He kept up his stream of conversation too, explaining in great detail how knowing the mermaids’ written language would open up a whole new world of diplomacy. Luke could practically see the treaties writing themselves in Elliot’s head. He could also feel Elliot shivering. With a sigh, he let his wings unfurl and settled one over Elliot’s shoulders. 

“—can actually put our agreements in writing, without—oh. Thanks, loser.” Elliot leaned against him. “It’s always so cold in this stupid place.”

Luke refrained from pointing out that the weather on the coast was milder than in most of the Borderlands. It would probably set off another lecture on central heating. “It’s warm where we’re going.”

They’d been given a small house at the edge of the village. There was no fortress here—that was one of the things they still had to negotiate with the mermaids. So it was just Elliot and Luke and Serene and Golden for now, official liaisons from the elves and the Border guard. His father’s troop had helped with a bandit issue a few years ago; the villagers were more than happy to return the favor and give them a place to stay. Or, as Elliot put it, ‘giving us the Sunborn treatment.’ Luke noticed he hadn’t made any objections to the central hearth that put out enough heat for the main room and the bedrooms, or the featherbed piled with blankets.

When they reached the house, Luke left Elliot grumbling over his sodden boots and went to stir up the fire. He expected Elliot would go change, then they could eat and probably spend the rest of the evening talking about the mermaid research. So he was not at all expecting the frigid hand sliding under his shirt as he bent over the fire.

“Augh! Elliot!” Luke dropped the fire poker in a shower of sparks. “Your hands are freezing.”

“An astute observation,” Elliot said. “Also, water is wet and people with feathers should not stand so close to open flames.”

Luke scowled at him, but he did step back from the fire. “Why did you do that?”

Elliot made a face that would probably have looked innocent to someone who hadn’t actually spoken to him. “As you noticed, my hands are cold. The rest of me is also cold, and these wet clothes are not helping. It’s a problem! And you know what else is a problem? These stupid leggings with their leather laces. How am I supposed to get out of them by myself?”

Luke rolled his eyes. “Right. And you’re still wearing your shirt because…?”

Elliot gave up on pretense. “Because my boyfriend hasn’t taken it off? I seem to remember you promised to help.” He caught a fistful of Luke’s shirt and nodded toward their bedroom. “Also, if I strip down right here it will scandalize our elven roommates.”

Golden and Serene had known Elliot for long enough that Luke doubted anything he did would truly scandalize them. But he did have the right idea. “Okay.”

It was easy enough to peel Elliot’s shirt off. Luke shrugged out of his shirt too, because his wings had a mind of their own at times like this and he found it embarrassing to request replacements. Elliot found it hilarious, of course. But he didn’t laugh now, just looked at Luke’s bare chest with appreciation. 

“Hey, loser.”

“Hey, Elliot.”

The leather laces  _ were  _ kind of a nuisance when they were wet. Fortunately, Luke was well acquainted with nuisances. He knew how to handle them now.

The featherbed was as soft as always. Most of the blankets ended up on Elliot’s side, but there were enough to share. Luke spread his wings over them both. “Warm enough?”

Instead of answering, Elliot reached for him. His hands were still cold, but his mouth was not. And really, that was all the answer Luke needed. 


End file.
